Macbeth Babies and Children Quotes

I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Lady Macbeth is the complete antithesis of what most people’s image of a woman and mother is. She describes herself as having been a loving and nurturing mother in the past. But she shockingly admits she would kill her own suckling baby before abandoning the plan to seize power and take the Scottish throne. Consumed with uncontrolled ambition, she is prepared to use every means to pressurize and shame Macbeth into killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s extreme words paint a picture of a woman with a very disturbed mind, foreshadowing her later descent into complete madness.

For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder’d;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1. An upset Macbeth realizes that he has sold his soul – “eternal jewel” (metaphor) – so that Banquo’s descendants will be kings. For that he has killed Duncan and destroyed his peace of mind. That is where his ambition has brought him to.

Filthy hags!
Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes!
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
Another yet! A seventh! I’ll see no more:
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
Which shows me many more; and some I see
That two-fold balls and treble scepters carry.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1. When the Witches show Macbeth their fourth apparition of a procession of kings descended from Banquo, he is clearly upset and angry. He asks if Banquo’s lineage will continue to occupy the throne until the end of time. Foreshadowed here is Banquo’s children having power.

SON: And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
LADY MACDUFF: Every one.
SON: Who must hang them?
LADY MACDUFF: Why, the honest men.
SON: Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men, and hang up them.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 2. Lady Macduff and her son discuss the subject of Macduff’s loyalty and how he is seen as a traitor because he fled to England to save Scotland from Macbeth. Macduff’s young boy, wise beyond his years, observes that the world is so full of traitors and dishonest men, there are enough of them to overpower and hang the honest men. There are echoes of “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” in what the boy says – that everything is not what it seems. This conversation is foreshadowing of the battle between Macduff and Macbeth – the good and honest man vs the liar and evil tyrant.

Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes
Savagely slaughter’d: to relate the manner,
Were, on the quarry of these murder’d deer,
To add the death of you.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Ross has the unenviable task of delivering the news to Macduff about the slaughter of his family in Scotland. At first he is unable to do so, twice lying that they are well when Macduff asks about them. Here he eventually tells Macduff that his wife and babies were murdered in their home. In this passage deer is a metaphor for Macduff’s family.

All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Macduff uses bird metaphors to convey his immense grief and loss on learning of the horrific murders of his wife and children. His words and tender imagery of a mother hen and her chickens convey his deep affection for the family he lost all at once. The passage shows the agony of an uncomprehending and manly warrior trying to make sense of such senseless slaughter at the hands of Macbeth’s thugs. He also uses the metaphor of “hell-kite” to compare Macbeth to a murderous bird of prey. This sets the stage for Macduff seeking revenge and eventually killing Macbeth. The passage is thus foreshadowing of future events.

I cannot but remember such things were
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3. Macduff agonizes over the slaughter of his wife and children by Macbeth’s thugs. He questions how God could allow such a thing. Heaven is personified when he accuses it of looking on and doing nothing about the crime. But Macduff also blames himself, his guilt evident in calling himself “sinful Macduff.” He says that his wife and children were innocent and the only reason they were targeted was because they were his family.
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